FPS-Admin/GDC 2010: Tripwire Talks Stalingrad

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At this year's Game Developer's Conference, Tripwire Interactive shared a booth with the Georgia Game Developer's Association in a friendly showcase of Southern talent, including Hi-Rez Studios' Global Agenda. The booth wasn't anything specifically designed to knock anyone's socks off, but the sparks in Alan Wilson's and John Gibson's eyes revealed they indeed had a few tricks up their respective sleeves. It's because they're hard at work on Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad and have some news to share about their realistic shooter.

2009 was the year of Killing Floor for Tripwire Interactive, as we here at Voodoo Extreme all know. They hadn't anticipated it would become as big of a hit as it did, so work on the game expanded into making sure the game was everything it could be. And while they took some time off of Red Orchestra, they learned a lot about accessibility from making such a hit. As they developed Killing Floor, they learned the kinds of things that players did and didn't do, from novices to veteran players. So figuring out ways to help the player without coddling them was an element of the success they wanted to bring back to the Red Orchestra series.

They assured me that this in no way meant that they would be "dumbing down" the game, just providing bits of information as needed, which everyone will have the option to turn off. They have every intention of staying true to the roots of Red Orchestra. But to really expand the audience, they know they need to at least provide a few optional elements that might help draw players over the learning curve. In the past they saw that once players cleared that hurdle, they absolutely loved the game. But they also know that some players were stopped by that same hurdle and didn't continue on. The original game just didn't give enough information to the players and they want to change that for the future, so that they just might be able to draw over some players from Battlefield and Modern Warfare who are ready for Tripwire's more realistic experience. But like I said, their new information system can be switched off.

Tripwire prides themselves on Red Orchestra's realism, and Alan insisted that the game "has to be as realistic as real life." They're taking some intriguing turns in bringing new ideas to life. Their ideas of what warfare realism means, actually involves seeing outside of the computer monitor. They began toying with the idea of peripheral vision, as the Red Orchestra series doesn't need a radar, and what's more realistic than being able to detect motion outside of your field of vision? They pulled some inspiration from an old flight sim, which used the idea of giving a subtle indicator when something was approaching from your periphery. The new Red Orchestra experience is going to utilize a similar system in which you'll get a small indicator letting you know that there's an enemy in your peripheral vision. This was the kind of innovation that came from taking a break from the project, and coming back with new perspective and musing on the lessons learned from Killing Floor.



But one of their big reveals during our talk was the new map called Grain Elevator. We've snagged a couple of exclusive images, along with a whole set of high resolution screenshots that reveal the location. It's a claustrophobic trip through narrow passageways and the multiple dark floors of a crumbling grain storage building; an eerie green building that juts into the clouded sky. The Tripwire team who scouted the location in Russia were some of the first people allowed into the building since the Germans were removed from the area back in the war. This is a significant note to the length the team went to to achieve the realism they want in this new Red Orchestra title. They've been holding back on revealing the new map, because they've been working on implementing a new graphic technology they wanted to show. While the tech work involved some "growing pains" to implement, the Unreal Engine work they've added truly adds a new level to the lighting effects and overall polish of the game.

And what better way to celebrate the reveal of a new map, than by discussing a brand new game type that can be played on it. There are three game types we discussed. First, Territory, which will be an improved version of the original. Second, Firefight, which is the Red Orchestra take on a team deathmatch. And thirdly, which we broke down in great detail: Countdown. While the first two are a relatively familiar type of skirmish, Countdown is an element that Tripwire truly aimed to innovate. They immediately began looking for ways to "not be Counterstrike." This meant identifying two key flaws in that type of multiplayer, in which everyone gets a single life and must wait for the round to be over to respawn. First was the idea that one must "hurry up and die, so others can play again." The other being the demand that levels needed to be smaller, so that there wouldn't be long gaps in the action, with one player being the holdout and keeping everyone from playing.

So what they came up with is Countdown. In Countdown players still only get one life, but they get one life per objective, and there are multiple objectives per level. These can be anything from a territory capture, blowing something up or reaching a certain position. There are no solid definitions for the extent of their objectives, but these are the current ideas they're working on. Once the attacking players take the objective, everyone respawns and the match moves to the next area. Alternatively, if the defenders kill all the attackers, they win the round and everyone switches sides.



The team has just recently been testing this new match type and have discovered that it leads to a more tactical experience, in which player chatter and collaboration elevate. And did I mention the kicker? Each objective is timed to a few minutes so that players must play quickly and with their heads. Rushing the objective will just get everyone killed, but camping a sniping spot won't get you anywhere either. They feel Countdown is the perfection of the tactical shooter style, and it's "tailor-made for clans." With the intensity upped, tactics are required to play smart and everything matters more. They have the objectives currently timed to three minutes, but they'll be tweaking that as more playtesting occurs, but say that it will never be over five minutes.

And if a new level and a panic-inducing game mode aren't enough for you, John also revealed a new type of overall gameplay. They're introducing a Multiplayer Campaign Mode. They found that oftentimes players will experience a match so intense, they're left dripping with sweat, but the whole experience only lasts fifteen minutes. They wanted a way to encapsulate that experience and stretch it out, while giving the game more depth. At this point in our conversation, John asked for my pen and began sketching out a checkered map on my notebook.

Each box represented a different map in the game, and he explained that this Multiplayer Campaign would act like a metagame of Risk. When players enter into the campaign, it's a giant power struggle. As a team wins a map, it's marked on that large map and the battle progresses into a new area. As teams win they gain Combat Strength, which directly ties to reinforcements and allows them to fight further against the losers. Thus, as one team captures more areas, they both grow stronger but use more strength, leaving them more vulnerable as they approach complete domination. This creates an epic tug-of-war in which those original fifteen minute white-knuckle rumbles turn into a two to three hour war. This brings a new level of immersion to the experience and sounds like it will allow players to truly get lost in battle.

But the power struggle isn't a simple win and get stronger. As more territory is taken from the losing team, they actually gain some strength in their reinforcements, because it takes less Combat Strength to defend than attack. This brings the fighting into a more historical representation of what happened between the Germans and Russians, because the Russians had been driven back to their last few lines where they were forced to pick off the Germans until they made a true comeback. This is exactly the type of situation that the Multiplayer Campaign encourages.



Our game discussion traveled to character progression, in which players level and rank up. This progression eventually leads to the creation of the titular Heroes. Once at that level, characters will have access to special items and bonuses, but it's the visual cues that sounded interesting in the progression. When a character cracks open Heroes of Stalingrad, they'll be a clean-shaven recruit, sporting a leftover, worn weapon. As they make their way towards becoming a Hero, they grow towards being a hardened veteran. This doesn't mean everyone will be a muscled Rambo, but instead a more grizzled veteran in which your experience shows on your face and your clothes. Steiner, from the old film Cross of Iron, was their prototype Hero. But unlike the recruit's clunky, used weapon, the Hero gets a sharp, clean piece of machinery that will reign terror on their enemies (that's the aim, anyway).

Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad is about realistic combat and furious multiplayer action. While they are planning a single player campaign, they aren't talking about it yet. So now you've seen two maps revealed and learned about a new match type which have Tripwire ecstatic about the possibilities. Time will tell.

Alan and John said there's no set release date for Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad. But they were quick to step on the rumor that the game was going to be coming out in April. With the success of Killing Floor, they find themselves in a position where the Heroes of Stalingrad's budget isn't necessarily drying up at a set date, so they have the time to create the full experience that they want to unleash on the world. "Not too soon, not real far," they joked. And the release will be by no means a secret. They're aiming to host a big beta test, a huge marketing push, and won't let the information pass you by. We'll be here to tell you all about it.


source: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/feature...lks-Stalingrad


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